1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mounting structures for electronics components. More specifically, mounting structures for facilitating fast and easy installation and/or removal of electronics components into or out of a computer system are disclosed.
2. Description of Related Art
Servers are commonly employed in computer networks such as the Internet. As an example, servers are often used to host web sites and/or web search engines that can be accessed by numerous computers over the Internet. Servers typically include high performance processors as well as hardware and software capable of handling high volumes of network traffic.
Many of today's more complex computing systems such as computer server systems are often rack-mounted systems in which a number of removable electronics modules, such as electronics trays, are positioned and stacked relative to each other in a shelf-like manner within a frame or rack. Rack-mounted systems allow the arrangement of several of the electronics modules in a vertical orientation for efficient use of space. Each electronics module can be slid into and out of the rack-mounting system. Typically; the electronics modules are inserted from the front of the rack and various cables such as data cables, power cables, etc., are connected to the electronics modules at the front and/or rear of the rack.
Each electronics module may correspond to a different server or each electronics module may hold one or more components of a server. Examples of electronics modules include modules for processing, storage such as random access memory (RAM), network interfaces and controllers, disk drives such as floppy disk drives, hard drives, compact disk (CD) drives, and digital video disk (DVD) drives, parallel and serial ports, small computer systems interface (SCSI) bus controllers, video controllers, power supplies, and so forth. A server farm in today's computing environment may include numerous racks that hold various types of computer-related modules.
When an electronics component on a given electronics module is to be serviced or replaced, a service technician would need to remove the electronics module from the server rack and then remove the electronics component from the electronics module. The electronics components are often mounted to the electronics module via mounting screws engaged with threaded mounting holes provided by the electronics components. The electronics components typically provide threaded mounting holes on the left and right sides and/or on the bottom surface of the electronics component. The service technician must first remove all the mounting screws for the particular electronics component before the electronics component can be removed from the electronics module.
However, in many electronics modules, the electronics components are mounted side-by-side in close proximity with other electronics components such that access to the mounting screws and the mounting holes are often blocked. Because access to the mounting screws may be awkward and difficult, removing or installing the mounting screws and the electronics component is often a difficult task. Not only does such a removal or installation process require the use of tools but access to the mounting screws may also be awkward and difficult. The servicing or replacing of an electronics component thus becomes a difficult, labor intensive, and time consuming process. The result is increased system downtime and increased cost resulting from both the system down time and increased labor costs associated with the service technician.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a mechanism to facilitate fast and easy installation and/or removal of an electronics component into or out of a computer such as an electronics module of a rack mounted computer system.